The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-30
The Carving Trade.

| anu shll SUI II. some OF Une Inquiries SiFei
are interesting, AMI certainly prove that il
no change of conditions occurs soon there
viii be no American vessel engaged il
the foreign trade. In 1856 American YES
sells carried IS per cent. of all our imports
and exports. At tho present time only Il
per cent. of the foreign commerce of the
United States is carried in American ships
From 1851 TO 1860 % per cent of the ton
mage entering our ports from abroad was
American built At the present time not
! more than IA per cent of the tonnage enter
| ing from foreign countries bears the
/ American flag. Just before the war
| the tonnage of the United States
had reached its greatest development. 1t
footed up in 1851, 5,539,sl3 tons, while
Great Britain, our chief competitor, had
the year before some 5,7l0,96S tons In 1885
the tonnage of the United States was 4, 265,-
934, while that of Great Britain was 5000
| 600. 1t is only by virtue of our annually
increasing coast, river and lake trade that
we are able to show the 4,0000 900 odd ton
mage just mentioned, as our vessels in the
foreign trade show, according to the re-
turns for 1886, an aggregate of only LOSS,
O4l, and even this is a startling decrease,
when compared with previous years.
OF seagoing steamers of iron build, 100
tons and over, the United States owned, in
1886, 205 vessels, with a gross tonnage of
327 1862; Great Britain had 5,346 vessels,
gross tonnage 4,05S, 75i; the French had 503
vessels, tonnage 49l ,655; the Germans 555
vessels, tonnage 409,03l; the Norwegians
207 vessels: the Spaniards 1863 vessels; and
the Swedish $40 vessels. OF the total sea-
going tonnage of the world, SO per cent. is
iron built; of United States seagoing ton
mage, only Is per cent. is iron built; while
in Great Britain the proportion of iron in
the total tonnage is SO per cent In France,
iron built ships form n per cent. of the total
tonnage; in Germany they form 55 per
cent; and, notwithstanding the fact that
Norway and Sweden are wood producing
countries. about one-half of their total ton
mage is iron built. In Italy n per cent. of
the seagoing tonnage is constructed of iron,
although the peninsula is rich in timber
suitable for ship building.
These figures show that the outlook for
American ship builders and shipping is
gloomy. For the improvement of this state
of things there is no lack of suggested
remedies, but when analysed they all
amount to the same thing-relief of ship
builders and ship owners from the burdens
imposed on the rest of the community by
giving them bounties to offset the tariff
taxes. 1t is a great misfortune that the
country should have lost its carrying trade
but the conditions which destroyed it would
tend to make the once great commercial
marine improbable were it yet in existence
The country has practically nothing for ex-
port except agricultural products, and the
great bulk of these is shipped to that coun-
try which can build ships and sail them
cheapest Its competition would be very
hard to overcome.
The principal value to us of American
built and American sailed ships, in addition
to the employment afforded mechanics
would be the aid they would give in devel-
oping our foreign commerce. But if other
conditions render that development impos-
sible what is the use of paying millions to
comparatively small class9 The bounty
might be sufficient to induce the building of
a small navy, but it could not have a
healthy growth when it depended for exist
ence, not on its earnings, but on the dona-
tions of a Congress liable to change its pol
icy every year or two.
AS for tine earnings of steamships in the
foreign carrying trade, even under the most
favorable conditions, they are probably less
now than the capital and labor interested in
them can earn in other branches of business
in the United States. If they do not con-
duce to the general welfare of other lines of
business, therefore, it is not the part of wis
dom to encourage men to build them 1t is
true that they might be made to aid in
developing our foreign trade by making the
bounties paid them big enough to pay the
freight on the goods sold to foreigners, and
even part Of their cost, but the people do
not want the trade ON such conditions it
would be too costly. If they pay for the
goods they ought to use them, and not the
foreigners
There is one thing, however, that can be
said of the bounty system--it would
make a longer division of the protec-
ton Doodle, and il the principle were ex-
tended far enough every man who is taxed
might get his money back, less the cost of
collection. Georgia paper not long ago
advocated the payment of a bounty to every
man who raised horse or mule If, ac-
cepting the precedent set by paying bounty
to ship builders, this were done, next year
another subject for special petting could be
added, and another and another, until
finally, when everybody else has been pro
vided for-if he has not starved to death in
the meantime-the poor man who raises
corn and cotton may be received
among the elect. The system would
then be complete, but its weak point is that,
as protection and bounty paying are the
same thing, when every man is protected he
swaps dollars from one of his own pockets
to another, which involves good deal of
worry and loss of time, without any profit
Under the present system the protected
man swaps dollars from his neighbors
pocket TO his own, which he no doubt finds
a very satisfactory process.
-
The glassworkers Of the Pittsburg district.
who are said to be the best paid worlmen
in the United States but who have bea,, IN